OotS Style Art/Fanart Showcase IV

[Elder Tsofu]

I'd probably reduce the size of the torso to about halfway between the belt and the current bottom and give her a bit longer legs instead.
I think that the usual guideline is that the character is three heads high, where the torso is one head and the legs is an other. Its is a guideline, not a rule though but I tend to prefer legs a bit too long than too short.

[SovietCommissar]

I'd probably reduce the size of the torso to about halfway between the belt and the current bottom and give her a bit longer legs instead.
I think that the usual guideline is that the character is three heads high, where the torso is one head and the legs is an other. Its is a guideline, not a rule though but I tend to prefer legs a bit too long than too short.

Yeah, I'd mentioned the whole height thing to her while she was in the beginning stages, and she said she planned to shorten up the "bean shape" of the torso a bit; guess it never happened. Thanks again, and cheers.

[Tiffanie Lirle]

Chose an avatar at random from my old works folder and redrew it. Nothing really fancy with this one.



I just wish I could remember who I drew the original for, anyone recognize the character? Aha, found em. Seems to be inactive now though.

[Teddy]

I've found myself caught by artistic stagnation. I have no ideas of what I could draw, and that also makes me put off what I should draw.

One of my friends asked me to up this for critique.

Most of it is rather well drawn, especially for a beginner. The mouth looks a bit weird, however.

[Elder Tsofu]

I've found myself caught by artistic stagnation. I have no ideas of what I could draw, and that also makes me put off what I should draw.

You can draw anything, so you should.

But yeah, been there done that - it usually help me if I finish of something and come into a roll. If you've got no ideas of your own you could check the avatar-request thread, someone has to have an request that kicks the little grey into action.

[Tiffanie Lirle]

I've found myself caught by artistic stagnation. I have no ideas of what I could draw

Over the years, I've found music to be my best source of inspiration. Just listen to something and then picture some random scenario in your head that goes along with the song.

[SovietCommissar]

Over the years, I've found music to be my best source of inspiration. Just listen to something and then picture some random scenario in your head that goes along with the song.

I do that quite a lot with writing, too; I can blame the book I'm writing squarely upon certain music I was a fan of, oh, six years ago.

[Doorhandle]

Over the years, I've found music to be my best source of inspiration. Just listen to something and then picture some random scenario in your head that goes along with the song

Also works for worldbuilding.

On another note, how do you increase canvas size in Inkscape?

[Teddy]

Over the years, I've found music to be my best source of inspiration. Just listen to something and then picture some random scenario in your head that goes along with the song.

The problem with that is that when I do so, I'll invariably think up a complete scenario from the beginning to the end, which I then only could do justice by animating it (I blame Homestuck). The problem is, I both lack the skill and the programs neccessary to pull off something like that, which means that I just stock up on ideas that won't be realised.

In fact, at the time being, I have two more or less complete animations recorded in my head to two different (instrumental) songs I like. The only part left is to concretise them in the form of a physical manuscript, and then animating them.

[memnarch]

Also works for worldbuilding.

On another note, how do you increase canvas size in Inkscape?

The canvas in Inkscape is just a nice background thing to have; you can work outside the thing as far as you want. I don't think there's a way to make a custom size of the thing, but there are a good number of options under File -> New ->, one of which is no borders.

[shawnhcorey]

On another note, how do you increase canvas size in Inkscape?

Sorry, Doorhandle, I missed you post. In Inkscape, choose File -> Document Properties... In the pop-up window, about half way down is "Custom Size". Change the Units to the ones you want and enter the Width and Height.

The canvas in Inkscape is just a nice background thing to have; you can work outside the thing as far as you want. I don't think there's a way to make a custom size of the thing, but there are a good number of options under File -> New ->, one of which is no borders.

Yes, in Inkscape, you can draw outsides the lines, any line.

[Tiffanie Lirle]

Not shading this one, I wanted it to keep a simpler look.

Anyways, you know; I really feel for this character. He's another one of my favorites. But I can't stop writing him in depressing scenarios.

He's like my writing punching bag.

[memnarch]

Oh now that's nice. Is he frosted over or something?

[Tiffanie Lirle]

Well he's been sitting there for a while. So the snow's kind of piled up a little.

[Doorhandle]

What exactly is happening in that scene anyway?


Also, have an art thing while I work on another thing.

Spoiler

Show

Pretty much a weapon used by the angel-equivalents of my constantly-in-progress fantasy universe. They're lawful rather than good, to put it into D&D terms, and therefore so is the weapon. it's deliberately simple-looking as i think anything too-complex would be too chaotic.

It's blade is almost literally 2D, completely invulnerable, and is capable of cutting things larger than the blade at any distance; You could go up against a spaceship with this, and win, provided it was within your visual range.

[Tiffanie Lirle]

What exactly is happening in that scene anyway?

Well, there's a guy and he's sitting down. Really, what you see is what you get.

Everything else is classified.

[Dashwood]

I'm starting to get back into avatars after a while. I did two for Radical Edward from Cowboy Bebop, and I like how they came out. The character I based these off of has a very simple design, but I feel like I'm missing something. Any comments or suggestions?



Thanks!

[Tiffanie Lirle]

If you want them to look more like Ed, you're missing two important things. The pinkish circles on the cheeks and the insane Yu-Gi-Oh esq. hair.

[Dashwood]

If you want them to look more like Ed, you're missing two important things. The pinkish circles on the cheeks and the insane Yu-Gi-Oh esq. hair.

While those do portray Ed better, I don't think they'd fit well in an OOTS avatar. I'd also probably make it look worse.
I'm usually very bad at hair, although this one came out well for me.

[Elder Tsofu]

I'm a bit unsure about the sex of the figure, on one hand it looks male in shape but on the other it wears a green bra outside the shirt. Is it a slightly chubby female or perhaps a male a college student?

[Teutonic Knight]

Ed is a boy in a loose half-top? and wears green goggles. He looks like this.

[Elder Tsofu]

You know, I see that you use "he" when you write but combined with that picture...

[Tiffanie Lirle]

Ed is a girl, have you people even watched Cowboy Bebop?

Anyways, I didn't recognize it was Ed until I read the post. Like Tsofu, I also saw the goggles as a bra. They just aren't very.. goggleish?

While those do portray Ed better, I don't think they'd fit well in an OOTS avatar.

This is your biggest mistake with the image. If you want to draw a specific character; you obviously can not skip very defining details of said character. Because then you aren't drawing the character, are you? It's like drawing a shaved Gandalf. It's just off.

I'm sure if you gave it a go you could work them in fairly easily. Your avatar is good. But it just doesn't portray the character like I assume you want it to.

[Doorhandle]

The wikis say Ed be female.

[Dashwood]

Wow. Knowing exactly what I Meant to be drawing, I totally did not see that a a bra...though in retrospect that is the immediate appearance. I tried them on the head now and I like that much better. It puts less mental images into my mind. I also tried one with the wackier anime hair and rosy checks suggested by Tiffanie Lirle, but it just didn't work for me. I feel like the anime styles really clash with the stick figure styles. Plus, I suck at hair.



I like this version better, and now I can't get over how the other two look like a bra!

[Elder Tsofu]

What a silly guy, he's got a green bra on his head.

Shouldn't his lose shirt tumble down over his head in that position?
*tries to apply laws of physics to stick-figures*

But regarding the animé/manga characteristics, its a judgement call every time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

[Oppolo]

Well I've been spending way too much time making characters to stick into the background for my little fan comic, but I haven't decided on which one to use as an avatar. To be honest, I'll probably stay avatar-less forever!

But I can still show you my little art. It's a bit big so here's a link to the 100 characters I've drawn!. I promised myself I wouldn't put them in this thread until I had a lot. 100 is a lot.

[Dashwood]

Well I've been spending way too much time making characters to stick into the background for my little fan comic, but I haven't decided on which one to use as an avatar. To be honest, I'll probably stay avatar-less forever!

But I can still show you my little art. It's a bit big so here's a link to the 100 characters I've drawn!. I promised myself I wouldn't put them in this thread until I had a lot. 100 is a lot.

Just do something you're happy with. I like the art in the comic so far. I can do single poses fine, but changing people around to form an entire comic strip is difficult.

[Oppolo]

Just do something you're happy with. I like the art in the comic so far. I can do single poses fine, but changing people around to form an entire comic strip is difficult.

What I do is that I have a 'pallet' of characters in a file, and in their pallet they don't have arms legs or mouths. Then when my comic background and panels are all done, I copy the characters over into place.
When all the characters are in place, I then move the feet to where they need to be (if they're a character who have shoes), then it's the fun bit where you can draw in the mouths and arms and legs. So you don't actually change them around at all until the final bit, when you're just popping the details in.

The process looks like this:

First the character with no features, then the featureless character in pose, then you put in the details.

Here's something cool I learnt: In inkscape, if you keep your finger on the ctrl key you can select and move and rotate bits that are in a group. So you can move shoes and rotate heads without ungrouping the character. So things stay nice and organised.

The only tricky bit is when your character overlaps a panel border, I'm used to it now but when I was making my first couple of strips it was a nightmare cutting the characters in half.

[shawnhcorey]

Here's something cool I learnt: In inkscape, if you keep your finger on the ctrl key you can select and move and rotate bits that are in a group. So you can move shoes and rotate heads without ungrouping the character. So things stay nice and organised.

If you're using Inkscape, then one trick is to put each character in its own layer. With the Layer dialog, you can easily lock and unlock each layer. By unlock each layer, one at a time, your edits only take place in that layer. You can also hide a layer, just in case you need to edit something underneath.